Reviews by scarfield:

The numbers given for the above review will be for 2008, my favorite of these three beers.

*2007*
Appearance- 3.5 Black, Opaque, minimal head and lacing. Darker than the 2010

Smell- 3.5 Very Mellow, still similar smelling when compared with 2010, the sourness is toned down by comparison.

Taste- 3.5 Also more mellow than younger versions. Wood on the end of this one, I taste less alcohol up front, more at the end. Has an ashy smoky finish that tastes almost stale. Fruit notes are more pronounced than the younger versions.

Mouthfeel - 4.0 Creamy on the tongue.

Drinkability 4.0 Less of a taste bud ruiner than younger versions.

*2008*

Appearance 3.5 More lacing in this one than in 07 or 10. Lighter in color as well, a very dark brown instead of black. Khaki head

Smell 3.5 Sour fruit coming through in this one, plus the smell of wood and bourbon.

Taste 4.0 Higher bourbon taste, very mellow, stronger in the wood taste than the 07.

MF- 4.0Very creamy, thick in the mouth. full tasting

Drinkability- 4.0 This beer is very drinkable, still high in ABV, but the taste is just right at this time.

*2009*

Appearance 3.5 Head and lacing are a dark brown/red rather than khaki for the other vintages.

Smell-3.0 Very faint and difficult to smell. Sour fruit, and oak. Milk comes along as well, but is very muted.

Taste-3.0 is more towards the front of the mouth, alcohol is there, wood notes as well. The least sour or bitter of the 3. Aftertaste is smoky, stale, almost moldy and ashy.

Mouthfeel- 3.5 smooth still, but less thick and creamy than the other two reviewed here.

Drinkability- 3.5 The aftertaste makes this more difficult to drink than 07 or 08.

Some argue this is not craft beer anymore due to change of ownership—we say “bollocks” to that. BCS has cult status and deservedly so. A slow sipper due to the size, and closing in on perfection makes it very easy to sip!! Cheers to Goose Island for its continuation and expansion within their barrel program.

Tart, alcoholic, not good at all. A bad batch - there *was* a limited mail in refund program. Sampled with some friends and ended up pouring most of it out. Goose Island is no longer worth the premium or the hype.

Traded one of my coworkers who hordes these beer for a particular 2013 vintage bottle that he said was his favorite beer of all time.

A - Jet black color devoid of all light reflecting out of this elixir. It pours beautifully with a dark khaki head and nice lacing. A very beautiful beer in the glass.

S - Tons of of sweet stout smell with roasted, chocolate, caramel, bourbon, and vanilla. Smells very strong and bursting with flavor.

T - A rush of flavor hits your palate but it is clear this is exactly what you would expect with the bourbon and imperial stout character holding your tongue hostage. The roasted, chocolate, and malt flavors blend perfectly with the oak, bourbon, and vanilla that comes with the barrel aging process. This beer tastes like one of the best beers in the world but is more bourbon forward, less complex, and higher in alcohol than some other top-tier bourbon barrel aged stouts.

M - Huge mouth-feel with light carbonation. This is probably the thickest and most heavenly bodied beers I've ever had.

Overall, this is a tremendous and amazing beer that deserves respect and a discerning palate to appreciate such grandeur. Though the bourbon is front and center it is smooth and flavorful and really adds a great deal to the amazing base imperial stout. Only a few weeks ago did I have the "other" amazing bourbon barrel stout, "KBS" and I would choose the Founder's counter part over Bourbon County only due to the ability to better discern all of the flavors instead of this beer where the flavors are so strong and fulfilling that the palate can be overwhelmed. Both of these beers are astonishing and should be sought out but in the end only one with prevail and for my palate "KBS" is the champion.

Appearance: Thicker, heavier, darker, and better colored than about any stout that I have ever had. It even sounds nicer when poured into a tulip glass.

Taste: Holds up to the aromas and more. One sip tells you that this is going to be a slow and steady drink. High barley and roasted grains without tasting harsh or "gainy". All of the fruits and sweetnesses in the aroma are compounded in the flavor. The sweet malt is quickly followed by fruity tartness and nice bittering from the dark malts and the well disguised hops.

Mouthfeel: Smooth, thick, and creamy. Coats the mouth incredibly well. Polishes off well without the stickyness associated with most high gravity brews.

Aftertaste: There's the bourbon. Until now, it hides in the background of all the other complexities. The bourbon flavors increase the caramel and vanilla flavors...and the alcohol. warming and lingering. Each sip makes you want to reflect before the next one.

Impression: overwhelming to the modest beer drinker. This one is definately for grown-ups (if not conissours). She's definately a sipper. Should only be enjoyed with good friend, a cozy fire, and hour to spare.

Yeah, I gave it a perfect score, so if you don't like that, stop reading.

This is THE Bourbon Stout. It does define the genre, it is the ruler by which I rate any other Bourbon Stout.

I'm not going down the list of why I have it 5's, just read:

It's as black as cartoon sludge, tastes like heaven, smells like an Elijah Craig truck crashed into an organic vanilla distributors Prius and both cars obliterated the front window of a boutique coffee and chocolate shop, all while Brahms is playing in the background... and it's more of a waltz than a crash. Mouthfeel? Remember when you were a kid, and you'd wait if the ice cream to melt then drink it (still do that?)? That...

Drink this beer... then hug your significant other, tell them you still love them, but you may sell them if it means more Bourbon County.*

*-Don't do this, this is not ok... have one bottle around as much as possible, but only having it once or twice per year is what makes it so special, don't ruin that.

Charred oak barrel black with a wee glimmer of burnt umber at the bottom edge of the glass. Light simply has no chance. The small, dark caramel colored cap isn't as creamy as expected, nor as sticky. I'm sure the 11.0% ABV has a lot to do with it, but I like a bit more eye candy. This is one serious looking stout, though.

The aroma is outstanding. This is exactly what a stout aged in bourbon barrels ought to smell like. An insane amount of heavily roasted barley greets my nose with every sniff. In addition, there's plenty of dark caramel, dark brown sugar, vanilla and glorious bourbon whiskey. With a bit more power and a bit more aggressiveness, it'd be perfect.

The flavor *is* perfect. Absofreakinlutely perfect! It doesn't hurt that I love bourbon because those 100 days in the barrel were 100 days well and efficiently spent. If bourbon whiskey isn't your thing, then I'd suggest drinking another beer. This one positively oozes that glorious spirit. Unlike some beer of this sub-style, the proportion of stout to whiskey is juuust right.

The flavor profile consists of bittersweet chocolate, brown sugar, dark butterscotch, crushed vanilla beans, charred oak, a splash of ouzo and a tendril or two of smoke. The whiskey adds a certain wee heavy character, although there's no peatiness since bourbon is the whiskey of choice rather than Scotch. It's amazing how each sip is better than the last. Where will it end?

I'm a bit surprised at the sweetness, but probably shouldn't be given the gargantuan amount of malt. The mouthfeel is full (without being ponderous), heavily silky, polished gemstone-like and nicely chewy on the back end. Carbonation must be present, though you'd never know it. Perfect score. Again.

I expected one whole helluva lot from Bourbon County Stout. All the more amazing, then, that it blew right past those expectations as if they were sitting still. This remarkable beer is easily the best that I've ever had from Goose Island. It's a true American original and is the perfect marriage of double stout and bourbon. The next time I see BCS, I plan to clear out the store.

No head on my pour, so no lacing, just a film of alcohol on the glass, but still nice aroma and BOOZY (not a bad thing)!

However, the sweetness intensity is more than I can handle! Way too heavy on the maple syrup/cherries/molasses, dominate the flavor profile for me, with maybe a hint of vanilla. Not getting any other notes?

Not nearly as balanced as I would have expected from BCBS.

Blood glucose approaching fatal level at 111.1 mmol/L ( 2,000 mg/dl ). Hope I pass out from the booze before I go into a sugar coma!

Take a glass of bourbon, dump in a box of maraschino cherries.
With one hand pour in some Aunt Jemima's and a bottle of molasses with the other.
Dump in a 5lb. bag of Dominos sugar and there you have it - 2015 Bourbon County Brand Stout :(

Mad love for the guys at Goose Island for kinda getting the whole Bourbon Barrel thing started, but sorry BCBS freaks... major dissapointment for me!

I am a newbie at the bourbon barrel aged stouts having only had KBS prior to tonight. BCBS was an amazing experience though. Not much head to speak of but blacker than the blackest cliche. Smell was strong bourbon with faint vanilla. Very smooth taste though, and this from a non-bourbon guy. I mean, it's there in force don't get me wrong but it's so smooth and delicious. Nice sweetness. 16.9 oz was a perfect serving size. This opened a door for me that I don't see closing.

T - bourbon is strong along with a nice sweet dark chocolate layer. This is pretty consistent throughout. As it warms, these layers continue among some new players to the game....oak, char, and very nice vanilla notes. The vanilla is surprisingly strong. A little dark fruit and some caramel on the very back end. Bourbon and dark chocolate are among every layer.

F - viscosity galore! This is a nice thick beer that is dangerously drinkable. No booze or heat after a little boozy smell.

Overall - This is an amazing beer. The GI Bourbon County Brand Stout beers are elite. If this beer had no variants and was released with 90% less bottles, I am certain this would be among the top 3 BA beers in the world. This will age well, but due to no heat or booze, this is a fantastic fresh barrel aged beer. Thanks again Goose!

Since I recently reviewed BA Ten Fidy somewhat negatively against BCBS, I thought it would be only fair to review BCBS on its own, just to make sure that my memory of the beer isn’t tainted by nostalgia. I was lucky enough to find a hidden stash at a local bottle shop two months after release, so here goes with the ’16 version.

Appearance: yup, I’m reminded why I always go back to this beer as a BA stout reference point. Deep, fudgy brown with a single-finger head that dissipates into a beautiful film across the top of the beer. It’s not showy or overly fluffy, just . . . elegant. The smell is exactly matched to the appearance, offering heady chocolate, vanilla, fig, and bourbon notes that make you realize that most adjunct stouts are basically trying to replicate what base BCBS does without having to add anything. Again, balance and refinement rule the day. Taste is complex and ever-changing as it warms: sweet vanilla evolves into a charred and bourbony chocolate that, in turn, drops into something approaching a deep, fudge liqueur. The journey through the bottle is like tasting three to four different world-class stouts, all of which are flawless. Mouthfeel is rich, oily, and viscous, what BA Ten Fidy wishes it could be. Every sip is like dessert, a decadent treat you want to never end.

Overall, what more can I say? The only thing that keeps me from ruling this BCBS a “perfect” beer is that, as good as the mouthfeel is, it’s been slightly better in previous years. I’ll always remember 2012, which honestly felt like warm brownie batter on the tongue. Obviously, this beer hardly needs my recommendation, but if you’re at all on the fence about trying to obtain and taste it, you’re crazy. It’s the beer to try before you die.

Who could possible age this stuff? If I had 12 bottles, they'd be gone in 12 nights. Honestly, beer gets no better than this- it has company, but I cannot see how one could be better crafted. Only different. Buy all you can get your hands on! (Even the "sour" batch of 2015 bests 95% of craft beer, in my opinion).

Always try to find this because I keep on drinking what I have. Summer, winter...doesn't matter.

2014 Vintage - Drank 7/2015
A- Black as Dracula’s cape, with a light auburn color. Lacing sticks like a Stage Five Clinger and slowly drifts into the glass like an old man into a lukewarm bath. A wonderful sight, the beer lacing that is.
S- If you didn’t know any better, you’d say this was bourbon mixed with vanilla. It smells of roasted malt, booze, chocolate and pure anticipation.
T- Damn good – love it. Keep it comin’ keep it comin’. Vanilla, chocolate; the bourbon is present unlike many of the style.
F- Just thick enough, coats the mouth and remains there. No reason to take a sip for another minute or two, so savor! The heat slithers down ever so warmly, beautiful.
O- Yup! I’ll continue to seek this out, every year, all year, until either I run out of trade bait or my wife hides all our money.

Just bought two bottles Bourbon County Stout at the extortionate price of $13 each. And after sampling one of the bottles, I am quite sure that I can swear off Bourbon County forever. Unlike the rest of humanity, I found it unbearably sweet and syrupy tasting (that's the bourbon barrel kicking in I suppose) - way over the top. Undrinkable, in fact. Did I get a bad batch? There is nothing on the Goose Island web site to indicate that I did. Let's assume that it wasn't a "bad" bottle, in which case the bottom line from my perspective is that it's simply awful.

Bourbon County 2014 turned everything I knew about beer on it's head. A year later, my palate has come a long way and I've been dying to get into another bottle. 2015 is perfection, and luckily I'll have quite a number of them to space out out over the months. Really looking forward to setting aside a 2015 and pairing it with a 2016 next winter. This stout is the standard-bearer for me. I've had a lot of good brews since my first Bourbon County, but nothing has compared. It's beer-heroin.

I got this from a wine/beer shop where the owner said he'd heard good things about this one but hadn't tried it yet. Well, he won't hear anything good from me. I don't remember the last time I didn't finish a beer. Just dreadful bleck. A friend with me shared my opinion.

This beer either represents the Emporers New Clothes of craft beer or there was something wrong with this bottle. It looked a fine dark brown/black. The smell was of molasses, burned things,raw alcohol and more burned molasses. A hint of overheated radiator was one of the better scents. The taste was big and layered, but the waves of burned sugar, gloppy sorghum, alcohol, just kept coming like a string of plague rats jumping into my mouth. I'm not sure of the mouthfeel, as I was too busy thinking of ways to apologize to my tongue.

If you took a Guinness and let it bounce around in your car trunk for a summer spent in the desert, added various burned molasses concoctions and some bourbon you had washed your feet in, you might approximate the flavor. This is the Edsel of beers in my opinion, and I am a huge fan of big stouts.

Bourbon County Stout 2014 from a 12oz. Bottle. Reviewed with Three Lions.
Look: Molassaes Color, dark like the back of a closet during a power outage. Slight caramel head. Very little lacing but leaves resin up the glass.
Smell: chocolate liqueur nose and can definitely get some of the oak from the barrel. Would love to know the bourbon that was in the barrel as it has a smoothness to it that's appealing. Chocolate Nibs with some sort of plum or date.
Taste: A lot a like a Milkyway Midnight. Vanilla, Chocolate, Cherry Cordial, caramel malt. So much more going on I can even describe. This is packed with flavors. The alcohol definitely comes through. Again would love to know the brand of Bourbon.
Mouthfeel: sticky like a good single malt bourbon or scotch, syrupie but not overly so. It is very creamy mid tongue. Finishes hot like a whiskey.
Overall: Three Lions wasn't lying this is incredible.

Probably the most overrated beer I've ever had. Pour is heavy with no head. Taste like stale bourbon and stale beer mixed together and aged in a rotting wooden barrel. It leaves you with a disgusting aftertaste that stays in the throat forever.

From the 500 ml bottle which cost fifteen bucks. Simply no foam at all. I poured into a couple different glasses. Mouthfeel is syrup. Aroma of, I swear, Manischewitz blackberry wine topped off with vodka.

Molasses is the predominate taste with a serious overdose of licorice. I don't taste the alleged Bourbon much. I keep thinking of Sugar Daddy suckers. The caramel taste just lingers. Seems like kind of a sugary alcoholic mess to me, and it doesn't get any better as it warms. I always look for Bourbon barrel flavored brews since my wife always likes to try them, and I think most of them are both tastier and more drinkable than this.

Reviewed with Hab11.
Picked up this gem to share with my brother in law. Have had multiple times, first time reviewing it. Here goes:
At first pour this beer comes out the color of spent motor oil. Faintest hint of head quickly dissipates leaving a molasses colored beer. Upon swirling the beer leaves a syrupy resinous coating along the sides of the glass.
Aroma: what a smell. The alcohol (at 13.8%) is far from hidden. Intense burn. Dark fruit and wood come through up front with chocolate notes in the background. It is like a rich chocolate liquer.
Taste: Taste is an obvious 5. So rich. Dark chocolate milky way? My god this is rich. I feel like I'm drinking a dessert. A very boozy dessert I might add. The look on my sister's face when she had a sip said it all. So comical. This is an intense beer. It's so heavy, so thick and creamy, so boozy...it's over the top.
Mouth: in general I hate putting numbers to or talking about mouthful but this was an easy 5. From the first sip I knew it was a 5 before any hint of flavor was processed. So thick and perfect.
Overall. What is there to say really? It's a near flawless beer. If you enjoy barrel aged stouts then you need to seek out this brew. If you aren't familiar then this would be a great place to start but beware because setting the standard with this...this benchmark will leave you let down by a large number of other beer claiming to deliver a similar product.